A man smuggled $180,000 worth of gold from the Royal Canadian Mint where he was working, and authorities were stumped as to how he did it, until they found vaseline in his locker.

Leston Lawrence, 35, hid the smuggled gold inside his rectum.

Lawrence has been on trial for theft, laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property, breach of trust, and other charges relating to the smuggling. The trial concluded on Tuesday, but a verdict will not be handed down until November 9.

It seems like every other week I write an article that states “a new record has been broken”. It is truly a sign of the times and an indication of the events that are unfolding all around us in this upside-down world we now find ourselves in.

This article is no different. It’s another strong indication of what is happening behind the scenes amongst the “smart money”. The Royal Canadian Mint has broken yet another record, a record they obtained only just last year.

The Royal Canadian Mint wants to get rid of pocket change — and it’s enlisting hacker-types for help.

Less than a week after the government announced the penny’s impending death, the Mint quietly unveiled its digital currency called MintChip.

Still in the research and development phase, MintChip will ultimately let people pay each other directly using smartphones, USB sticks, computers, tablets and clouds. The digital currency will be anonymous and good for small transactions — just like cash, the Mint says.

To make sure its technology meets the gold standard in a world where digital transactions are gaining steam, the Mint is holding a contest for software developers to create applications using the MintChip.

With continued reports of booming sales and tightness in the silver market, today King World News interviewed Dave Madge director of sales at the Royal Canadian Mint. When asked if the RCM is having trouble acquiring silver Madge responded, “Demand right now for silver is through the roof and it shows no signs of slowing at this point. Sourcing silver is becoming very difficult. We are competing with a great many players when it comes to purchasing silver and many of these players are bidding the price higher.”
Dave Madge of the Royal Canadian Mint continues:

“Our advantage is that we have had long-term relationships with our suppliers and that has helped us in this situation. We have been able to leverage off of those relationships to get supply, but it still remains a big challenge sourcing material. We’re looking at ways of mitigating our risk regarding supply of silver.

We are anticipating it to become even more difficult to secure supplies in the future. This is based on what we are seeing firsthand and what our suppliers are telling us. We work closely with these banks to secure silver and they tell us there is a lot of competition.”